Begin with the standard opening. Call forth Lord Buddha, Lord Maitreya, Allah Gobi, Saint Germain, El Morya, Kuthumi, Serapis Bey, Paul the Venetian, Hilarion, Sananda, Djwhal Khul, Virgin Mary, Quan Yin, Isis, Lakshmi, Helios and Vesta and Pallas Athena.

Take turns reading chapter 1, "The Seven Levels of Initiation," from Beyond Ascension. Discuss the material and share.

Take a break. Play the audio tape, "Ultimate Ascension Activation Meditation," or lead the Ascension Meditation and Treatment starting on page 45. Standard closing. Personal sharing time. Social time.

Beyond Ascension
How to Complete the Seven Levels of Initiation
Chapter 1
The Seven Levels of Initiation

It is potentially possible for a person to move from the third to the sixth initiation in only six years.
Djwhal Khul

In this chapter I have included a brief synopsis of the seven levels of initiation. For a more detailed account, see my first book, The Complete Ascension Manual: How to Achieve Ascension in This Lifetime.

The spiritual path really begins prior to the seven levels of initiation. This period has been esoterically called the Path of Probation. It could be likened to the nine months of gestation in the womb prior to birth, but it refers to spiritual gestation, of course. The spiritual birth is the taking of the first initiation.

The first initiation deals with developing mastery over the densest body, or vehicle, which is the physical body. To pass this initiation you are required to develop a beginning level of mastery over the body and its appetites, requirements, sexual urges, sleep habits, and so on, in service of the soul, or higher self, which at this point would hold the ideal of balance and moderation.

The second initiation is concerned with developing mastery over the second densest vehicle, which is the emotional, or astral, body. To pass this initiation you must develop mastery over your emotions and desires to a certain degree, in service of the soul. It is not so much perfection that is required but, rather, conscious intent and continual choice-making to move in this direction. Material desires are beginning to be transformed into the spiritual desire for liberation and God-realization. As a disciple, you are learning to avoid being a victim of your desires and emotions and instead be a master and cause. (See my book Soul Psychology for help in this area.) This is the level of initiation at which you are most likely to stay stuck the longest.

The third initiation is related to mastery of the next densest vehicle, which is the mental body. To pass this initiation you must develop some level of mastery over your mind and your thoughts. This is the first major initiation, for it leads you to achieve what is called soul merge, or soul infusion. Mastery of the physical body, astral body, and mental body allows you, the disciple and personality on Earth, to merge with your soul. You then desire to be loving, forgiving, and to be of service, as well as wanting to begin the process of liberation from the wheel of rebirth.

It must be understood here that initiation is a process. It doesn't happen all at once, although there is one moment when you receive the Rod of Initiation from the Lord Maitreya (the "president" of the Spiritual Hierarchy). There are seven sublevels within each of the seven major initiations. When you take any given initiation you become a kindergarten disciple at that level. You must then move through all seven sublevels to fully complete that initiation. I had taken my sixth initiation but hadn't fully completed it until I realized the seventh sublevel of the sixth initiation. Then I took my seventh initiation. It wasn't until then that I really felt as though I had graduated and fully mastered my ascension.

Once you merge with your soul at the third initiation, things begin to speed up very rapidly. The fourth initiation is a major marker point. It is at this initiation that the soul body, which is also esoterically referred to as the causal body, burns up, and the higher self, or soul, which has been your guide throughout all your incarnations, merges back into the monad, or spirit. (The monad has also been referred to by some schools as the Mighty I Am Presence.) From that moment on, the monad is your guide and teacher rather than the soul, which had been serving as an intermediary teacher until that moment. The soul has served as the repository for all your good karma from all your past lives and your current life. This repository is burned up over a period of time as you move toward completion of this initiation.

The fourth initiation has also been esoterically referred to as the initiation of renunciation. This is so because prior to taking it you are required on some level to let go of all attachments, to the material world, including fame, fortune, power, selfishness, people, family and reputation. I often think of this as the "Job initiation" - everything is stripped away as a test to see if you remain righteous in the eyes of the Lord.

Even though previous teachings said that the fourth initiation meant complete liberation from the wheel of rebirth, it is now known that while this is an important step, initiates continue the reincarnation process in another body after this one or through the continuation of this life until full ascension is achieved. I, personally, did not feel fully freed from the wheel of rebirth until I had completed the seventh sublevel of the sixth initiation. It was during that initiation ceremony that I finally felt fully freed for eternity. The fourth initiation requires a 65% Light quotient in your four-body system.

The Fifth Initiation

The fifth initiation is, in a sense, similar to the third initiation: in the third you begin the soul merge; in the fifth you begin the monadic merge, which could also be called the merge with spirit or with the I Am Presence. So this initiation might be considered a very early glimpse of your actual ascension, which is the sixth initiation.

Ascension really means that the personality, the soul, and the monad all become one unified being on Earth. The fifth initiation merges the monad in consciousness, but not in full actuality. At the fifth initiation you have to have a 75% Light quotient in your field.

You might not understand that these initiations occur on the inner Plane and are very subtle. I would say most people are not even consciously aware they have taken them. This is very often true even in the case of those people who are aware of the seven levels of initiation and are working on them consciously. It is even true of actual ascension. I must admit that the process of completing seven levels of initiation was very different from what I'd expected. I, personally, happened to be quite aware of my later initiations and they were all quite wonderful, but I am learning that is rare. I am acquainted with a great number of people now who are beginning to take these initiations and everyone agrees that the actual initiation experience is more subtle than they had expected it to be. This is not to say that the experiences are not profound. I was deeply impacted by my fifth, sixth, and seventh initiations, but not in the way that I expected to be, and I was most deeply affected by the seventh initiation in which I felt the largest and most extraordinary transformation took place.

The Sixth Initiation, Ascension

The taking of the sixth initiation is the actual ascension experience for which everyone is waiting and working. In the past, when people took their sixth initiations they usually left their bodies and passed on to the spiritual world. On rare occasions they were able to dematerialize their physical bodies and take them along; however, this was more the exception than the rule. The new goal of the Spiritual Hierarchy and Sanat Kumara is to have people ascend and continue serving on earth to help bring in the New Age.

Ascension is full merger with the monad or I Am Presence or spirit while on Earth. There is a ceremony that takes place on the inner plane involving Sanat Kumara even though most people do not remember it. The actual experience is subtle, while the implications of taking this initiation are quite profound.

There are seven planes through which you must evolve. The seven planes are connected with the seven levels of initiation and are, according to Djwhal Khul in the Alice Bailey material, as follows.

Physical plane ....... First initiation
Astral plane ....... Second initiation
Mental plane ....... Third initiation
Buddhic plane ....... Fourth initiation
Atmic plane ....... Fifth initiation
Monadic plane ....... Sixth initiation
Logoic plane ....... Seventh initiation

As you can see from this little diagram, ascension is movement toward the monadic and logoic planes. Each initiation you go through stabilizes you at the next higher plane. I am using the word "plane" here rather than "dimension" because there are seven planes and nine dimensions with which you deal here on Earth.

Ascension, the sixth initiation, is movement into the fifth dimension. The seventh initiation is movement into the sixth dimension. As you can see, the dimensions are different from the seven subplanes that make up the cosmic physical plane. There are also seven cosmic planes. (See The Complete Ascension Manual: How to Achieve Ascension in this Lifetime.) Even the seventh initiation is less than one inch up a ten-inch ruler in terms of how far you still have to go to fully realize God at the highest cosmic level. Evolving through these seven major initiations is a major step, however.

The first cosmic initiation, from the point of view of the higher university on Sirius, is the fifth initiation. The second cosmic initiation from that point of view is the sixth initiation, ascension. The third cosmic initiation is the seventh initiation. There are two more initiations that can be taken after leaving the Earth: the eighth and the ninth. The completion of the ninth is the doorway for leaving the cosmic physical universe altogether.

Getting back to the sixth initiation: when you take this initiation you are considered a kindergarten-level ascended master. You do have a choice as to whether you want to leave Earth or remain here and serve. At this time, most are choosing to stay. Just because you have ascended, it does not necessarily mean that you can walk on water, raise the dead, or turn water into wine. These are potential abilities, that can be developed; however, you probably won't develop them until some time after fully completing your seventh initiation.

You will be happy to know that you do not have to have perfect health in order to ascend; you can even have chronic health lessons. I know this for a fact because I did. You also do not have to be totally free of all negative emotions and/or totally free of the negative ego and lower self. This may surprise some of you; however, I also know this to be a fact.

I know people who have taken their ascension whom I would consider to be emotional victims, although they also happen to have been extremely gifted in other spiritual areas. Their victimization by their emotional bodies and desire did not prevent their ascension. You have to balance only 51% of your karma to ascend.

After you ascend you will feel like exactly the same person you were before you ascended, but you will be in a higher octave. You will be carrying more Light, and you will be more connected to spirit and to the ascended masters.

I had been under the assumption that freedom from the wheel of rebirth occurred at the beginning of the sixth initiation. If this were not the case, then why would people of past centuries have physically died when they took this initiation and ascension? When my wife, Terri Sue, was channeling Djwhal Khul just recently during one of our Wednesday night classes, he said that the discrepancy exists because freedom from the necessity of rebirth actually occurs at the completion of the sixth initiation. My own experience tells me that true graduation occurred at the completion of the sixth. What I do know is that liberation from the wheel of rebirth happens somewhere during the sixth initiation, either at the beginning or at the end. It is also somewhat individual, in that some even choose to return to resolve the small percentage of remaining karma or to strengthen some aspect of self while continuing to serve the Earth and humanity.

Djwhal Khul has suggested that if you happen to die physically just prior to taking the sixth initiation or during the middle of it, you should call to the ascended masters to help you to complete your initiation process. They can work with you on the inner plane to help you finish up. I should also emphasize here that you can physically die even though you are ascended.

Ascended masters are not invulnerable and, in truth, are far from perfect. There are many different kinds of ascended masters. Some ascended masters (you may officially call yourself one upon taking the sixth initiation) are emotional types, some mental types, some physical types. The same strengths and weaknesses you had in your four-body system before your ascension will be there after you ascend. You will, however, have greater Light, energy, and consciousness with which to heal yourself more quickly.

To ascend and take your sixth initiation you will need an 80% to 83% Light quotient in your four-body system. This issue of the Light quotient is extremely important and I have dedicated a chapter in this book to ways of building it. The ascension ceremony often occurs in a group situation, often at the Wesak Festival, which occurs at the full moon of Taurus in May.

A planetary window for mass ascension is occurring on this planet between 1995 and the year 2000. Ascensions will continue on a large scale after that, but that is the main window. In the past, it used to take whole lifetimes to take just one initiation. I know for an absolute fact that a person can move through whole levels of initiation in as short a time as five months because I did it. I am not saying everyone will evolve at that rate; it all depends upon your commitment and focus. If you are really committed and very focused, I would say intuitively that during this most extraordinary time, if you use all the techniques in this book and my other books, it is reasonable to expect that you could move through the initiations at the rate of anywhere from one to five years per initiation. I am putting myself out on a limb by saying this because people are so different, but if you use the tools and ideas given here, I think it is a reasonable prediction, especially given what is happening to the planet at this time.

The issue then is how to know your level of initiation. Your intuition can tell you. If you are proficient in the use of a pendulum, that can be a useful tool. Ask during your meditations. Ask for a dream to tell you. As a last resort, you can ask a qualified channel of the ascended masters. This is not my favorite method because it is always better to get it from within yourself, however, it can be useful at times.

I recommend that you be discerning about whom you talk with about this subject. There is a great tendency to compare and compete and that is not good. It is antithetical to the whole process. There is also a tendency to judge yourself and others. It is essential to understand that everyone is God, regardless of his or her level of unfoldment, and everyone should be treated as such. I am not saying that you can never talk about it, but be extremely discerning and examine your motives for doing so.

This is actually the first time I have openly discussed my own initiation process. I have not talked about it in our classes, workshops, or seminars at all. I have just kept it to myself and tried to be it instead of talking about it. My inner guidance, however, told me that for the purposes of this book and for the benefit that might come to you, the reader, from my personal experiences, it would be appropriate. The key question is always whether sharing the information is a service or is for the gratification of the ego. Is it serving spirit to share or serving the negative ego? If it is of service, do share. Just be discerning, for you do not want others to feel inferior. As the Bible says, "Pride goeth before a fall."

In the system of initiation delineated by Brian Grattan in Mahatma I & II, ascension is still the sixth and its completion is the ninth initiation. The seventh initiation in the Alice Bailey system is level nine and one-half of Brian Grattan's system. The completion of the seventh initiation is the same as saying that you have completed the seven sublevels of the seventh initiation. It is at this point (at the twelfth initiation in Grattan's system) that all initiations stop for the rest of the incarnation. Your total focus from that point forward is service and helping humanity and the lower kingdoms to share in the grace.

There is also a correlation between the initiations and the anchoring of the higher chakras. When you ascend, your sixteenth chakra has descended and is anchored in your crown. The sixteenth chakra is the beginning of the fifth-dimensional chakra grid, chakras sixteen through twenty-two. At the completion of the seventh initiation, the thirty-sixth chakra has descended and is fully anchored and actualized in the crown chakra. One of the most important ways of accelerating your spiritual progression is to call forth the anchoring of the fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-dimensional chakra grids during meditation (and before sleep every night).

At the time of writing this chapter I have installed all of my thirty-six chakras; however, I am currently actualizing up to the beginning of my thirty-fifth. The reason I bring this up is so I can share that the anchoring, activation, and actualization of the individual chakras and the entire chakra grid are scientifically connected to the initiation process. In other words, each chakra can be associated with one of the seven sublevels between each major initiation. As each individual chakra is anchored, activated, and then actualized, you move up to another sublevel.

Prior to your ascension, during every meditation, you should call forth the full anchoring, activation, and actualization of your twenty-two chakras and of your fourth- and fifth-dimensional chakra grids. The masters will do this for you upon your request and invitation. Though there may be one, I don't know of any technique other than building your Light quotient that will accelerate your evolution.

It is at the sixth initiation that you make the choice of which of the seven paths of higher evolution you will follow upon leaving this plane. These seven paths are:
The Path of Earth Service
The Path of Magnetic Work
The Path of Training to become a Planetary Logos
The Path to Sirius
The Ray Path
The Path on which the Logos is found
The Path of Absolute Sonship

There is very little information on this plane about these seven paths. Djwhal Khul, in the Alice Bailey books, is almost the only master to bring forth any information at all. One of the services I have tried to render in this book is to share with you my research, in easy-to-understand language, into these seven paths.

Ascension is basically merging with the Clear Light of God, much like what is recommended during the bardo, or after-death experience. The only difference is that ascension is merging with the Clear Light of God while still retaining a physical body. The monad, at the time of ascension, is able to fully anchor Light at the 80% to 83% level. As you complete your ascension the Light quotient is up to the 92% to 94% level. At the time of writing this book my Light quotient is at the 94% to 95% level. I have been guided that within three-and-a-half months' time, which falls on the 12.12 ceremony (December 12, 1994), my Light quotient will be at the 97% level and I will be at the beginning of the seventh sublevel of the seventh initiation (at the beginning of the twelfth initiation in Brian Grattan's system). I have also been told that by the Wesak Festival on May 14, 1995, my Light quotient will be fully stabilized at the 98% level and I will have completed the seventh initiation (Brian's twelfth initiation). I share this personal information with you to give you a sense of how the process works and a feel for the time frame of taking these initiations and building your Light quotient.

The Seventh Initiation

The seventh initiation has to do with the movement from the monadic plane of reality up to the logoic, or seventh plane of reality. Where the sixth initiation deals with merging with the monad, the seventh initiation concerns greater merger with Sanat Kumara and Shamballa. Djwhal Khul told me that the seventh-degree initiate is usually one who becomes a teacher on a global level in a very visible way.

Sixth-degree initiates and ascended masters often have this service path; however, that is not required. Djwhal Khul also told my friend Marcia, who heads Djwhal Khul's ashram on the East Coast, and me during one of our meditations since taking the seventh initiation, that much has been given and much is now expected. This was fine with us, for as A Course in Miracles says, "True pleasure is serving God."

After taking my sixth initiation I asked Vywamus how long it would take for me and the core ascension group with which I am working to achieve our seventh initiation. At that time he said from one to five years. He also said that the taking of our seventh initiation might be affected by planetary events. One element was the geographic location in which we live. (Terri Sue and I live in Los Angeles at the time of this writing - not the best place in the world to be, energetically!)

Vywamus also said that a second factor is the fact that an asteroid is heading toward this planet. It will not directly hit the planet but will pass very close by. The exact timing was not clear, but he said that September 1997 was what he was seeing at the time of the conversation, early in 1994. Vywamus said it would cause a spiritual quickening for the planet. He said that a good metaphor for understanding its effects would be to imagine being in a car parked on a freeway, when all of a sudden an eighteen-wheeled truck goes speeding by. I don't need to explain the effects. The asteroid will have similar effects on the Earth.

Vywamus said another planetary event that could have an effect on when we take our seventh initiation is the alien situation. He said that extraterrestrials will begin making much more overt contact with Planet Earth around September of 1995. Depending on how overt this contact is, it could send shock waves reverberating around the entire planet.

I share these personal conversations with you because they might also affect you, my reader. Until now, I had never considered that these planetary events might have any effect on my own initiation process. As it turned out, they did not. I took my ascension on March 23, 1994, and I took my seventh initiation on August 23, 1994.

The seventh initiation causes a complete implosion of energy in the heart chakra. It creates a whole new chakra system. All the chakras become one column of Light, connected with the antakarana and the ascension column. This new chakra system, metaphorically, is like the creation of a new star system. The ascension of the sixth initiation is centered in the throat chakra. The seventh initiation occurs in the heart chakra; it is a merger with the monad at approximately the 94% Light quotient level.

The seventh initiation is not truly complete until the Light quotient is stabilized at the 97% to 98% level. Djwhal Khul told us that the very beginning stages of the seventh initiation can occur when you reach the 89% to 91% Light quotient level. You aren't really into the seventh initiation until you reach the 94% Light quotient level. I, personally, took the seventh initiation when I was at the 94% Light quotient level. Djwhal said that some could take it when they are between the 92% and 94% levels.

The seventh initiation is the beginning of the transcendence of all physical laws. It is also a complete and total commitment to service and a relinquishment of all negative ego. Djwhal also told us that even though the monad is fully anchored into the four-body system after ascension, it would not be completely merged in its full totality until after taking the seventh initiation. The seventh initiation means merging with the sixth dimension of reality and with the seventh-dimensional chakra grid, or chakras thirty through thirty-six.

The seventh initiation is divorced from all considerations of form and the initiate becomes a concentrated point of living Light. The seventh initiation gives the initiate the right to come and go in the courts of Shamballa. It has been referred to, esoterically, as the initiation of resurrection. Lord Maitreya took his seventh initiation on the cross at the death of the master Jesus. Lord Maitreya, of course, shared Jesus' physical body during the last three years of his life. Jesus took his fourth initiation on the cross.

The seventh initiation is the one in which the child of God has found his way back to the Father and to his originating Source, or that state of existence known as Shamballa. The seventh initiation begins the full opening of involvement with the extraplanetary existence with which our Planetary Logos, the Lord of the World, is involved.

At this initiation Sanat Kumara is attended by two groups of beings. The first is called Knowers of the Purpose, Custodians of the Win. This is the smaller group. The second group is much larger and is called The Wise Ones and Attractive Energies of Shamballa. These beings operate on a high level of the cosmic plane, corresponding to the ajna center of humankind, and embody the Will to Good. More succinctly, they are the ajna, or third eye center, for Sanat Kumara, the Planetary Logos. In a larger context, Shamballa is the crown center; the Spiritual Hierarchy is the heart center, and humanity is the creative throat center. It is also to Shamballa that the seventh-degree initiate goes for periods of cyclic re-charging.

At the seventh initiation, an even higher electrical force is transmitted to the master through Sanat Kumara's Rod of Initiation, which signifies full completion. The master has become a full-fledged seventh-degree Melchizedek (as the ancient Egyptian teachings described the process). This, again, is the highest initiation that can be taken on the Earthly plane.

After you take the seventh initiation, work still remains to be done in terms of fully realizing or completing this initiation. You have moved from being an advanced sixth-degree initiate to being a beginning seventh-degree initiate. It is most likely in the seventh initiation that the more advanced and transcendent ascension abilities will be developed - that is to say, those that defy physical laws. At the seventh initiation your Light quotient is high enough (minimally 94%) to master these abilities with ease.

The eighth initiation has been referred to as the Great Transition; it will be taken on the inner plane after leaving the material world. The ninth initiation has been esoterically called the Refusal; it indicates the master's last contact with what has been referred to as cosmic evil as it relates to this planet.

I took my seventh initiation sitting on top of a physical mountain with my wife, Terri Sue. Upon the completion of a brief ceremony, Djwhal Khul said, "Welcome to the eighth school." Each initiation you pass welcomes you to the school above. Melchizedek referred to this seventh initiation as going through the final seal, which reminds me of the seven seals of which Peter spoke in the Revelation.

There was a tremendous feeling of celebration and joy after this experience. It really felt like a marker point, like a complete graduation. Terri Sue had had a dream three days earlier regarding the completion of our ascension, or sixth initiation. In the dream we were meditating together under the full moon when all of a sudden a sniper shot Terri Sue in the heart and she died. I picked her up and took her to a more comfortable spot and then I was shot in the third eye. (Where we were shot is significant.) I died and we both ascended. The completion of the ascension and the taking of the seventh initiation are like a death. Physical existence is never again the same, for you have totally ascended and are now remaining in the physical vehicle as a bodhisattva for service purposes.

More Information on the Higher Initiations

My friend Marcia channeled some very interesting information on initiations three through seven.

Third initiation = Desire to know your true self
Fourth initiation = Desire for complete knowledge of self
Fifth initiation = Complete unification with peace and harmony
Sixth initiation = Service
Seventh initiation = Complete liberation from Earthbound functions;
development of advanced and transcendent ascension
abilities.

Planetary Initiations

Just as humanity goes through initiations, so do the Earth Mother and Sanat Kumara, who ensouls the Earth as the Planetary Logos. The Earth Mother, or the heavenly body known as Earth, has recently taken her third initiation, the soul merge initiation. This is why Earth has moved into what has been termed sacred status. It is a recent occurrence, for in Djwhal Khul's writings in the Alice Bailey material, it had not yet happened.

Vywamus gave me a fascinating piece of information about this process that I had never before realized. I asked Vywamus what happens when the Earth Mother completes her seventh initiation. He told me that the Earth Mother will experience a nova - in other words, will turn into Light. That is to say that the Earth Mother will ascend. The planetary body known as Earth will experience a type of ascension similar to that of humans upon completion of the seventh initiation.

I also asked Vywamus about Sanat Kumara's initiation process, for Sanat Kumara has recently taken another initiation. When Sanat Kumara takes an initiation as the Planetary Logos, all evolution on the planet - human, animal, plant, and mineral - moves up another octave with him.

I asked Vywamus to explain Sanat Kumara's initiations. He was not allowed to explain too much, but what he did say was that there were twelve further initiations on a more cosmic level which Sanat Kumara was in the process of working through. So there are the seven basic cosmic initiations and then the five higher cosmic initiations that correspond to the five higher rays. I asked if these initiations relate to what might be termed the first twenty-four initiations of the three hundred fifty-two levels that make up the Mahatma. Vywamus said that he was using a different system. It is interesting to me that the initiation process is still in effect at this cosmic level, at least for the training of a planetary logos.

Vywamus said that the Earth Mother was still relatively young, rather like a radiant adolescent, and the Earth being is a very sought-after planet for the incarnation process. He also said that the life forms on this planet would probably return to an etheric state before the actual nova, or ascension, effect. That is interesting, for it is also how life began on this planet in pre-Lemurian times. Life was not always physical in the way that we now understand it to be. Earth is a very tough school, Vywamus said. However, the potential for spiritual growth and evolvment is enormous and that is why incarnating here is so desirable.